Tell me that not everything I wrote was bad.

- Maurice Ravel

I did my work slowly, drop by drop. I tore it out of me by pieces.

- Maurice Ravel

To George Gershwin, on refusinghim as a pupil: You would only lose the spontaneous quality of your melody, and end by writing bad Ravel.

- Maurice Ravel

Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?

- Maurice Ravel

Remember that I wrote a pavane for a dead princess, and not a dead pavane for a princess!

- Maurice Ravel

I do not ask for my music to be interpreted, but only for it to be played.

- Maurice Ravel

Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.

- Maurice Ravel

I begin by considering an effect.

- Maurice Ravel

My intention here is to make it clear that not a single cell of my composition, here in regard to The Raven, is found by chance or intuition, that th…

- Maurice Ravel